A Different Kind of War President
BARNES, FRED
A Different Kind of War President The compassionate commander in chief. BY FRED BARNES PRESIDENT BUSH never tires of saying the fight against terrorism is "a different kind of war." He said it...
...Everyone who heard him looked absolutely convinced...
...And does anyone believe Arab Americans face true repression, as Japanese Americans once did...
...Moran asked skeptically about an FBI alert that more terrorist attacks on America may be imminent...
...still, Bush goes out of his way to coddle them rhetorically...
...But in the battle against Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, America has Arab and Muslim allies so lukewarm they probably should be viewed as allies in name only...
...He said an alert in itself was reassuring...
...We will not relent...
...But it's not only the war that's different...
...He's gotten pretty adept at it...
...And to business leaders in New York a few days earlier, he said that not only is "this president resolved, but America is resolved to rout out terrorism...
...We will not tire," he declared at FBI headquarters on October 10...
...Though America was the victim of a terrorist attack by islamic radicals headquartered in Afghanistan, Bush insists the war is not against islam or Afghanistan...
...In fact, Bush said tolerance in America of other faiths and races is what "will ultimately defeat terrorist activity...
...But Bush loves to repeat stories about Christians and Jews rushing to the defense of their Arab-American neighbors...
...Bush tries to reassure the public for the same reason he expresses resolve: It's what's required of a war president to keep up the country's fighting spirit and support for the war...
...Bush's response was unresponsive—preposterous, really—but clever...
...Hard to imagine, but then Roosevelt didn't have to worry about queasy Muslim allies...
...his way to reassure Arab Americans...
...In a modern war against terrorists, a war with religious overtones and ethnic sensitivities, Bush's politically correct themes of compassion and tolerance may have a place...
...Of course they're as terrified of bin Laden and Islamic radicals as America is and far more vulnerable to being overthrown...
...He mentions at least a couple of them at every photo op and in every brief speech...
...He says this over and over to reconcile the country to a war that may drag on without smashing victories (or defeats...
...The stories show the "true nature of America," Bush said...
...Press conferences, like speeches, used to be treacherous for Bush...
...And while America is not at fault, he defends the country's goodness as if it were at issue...
...It is, as Bush says, a different sort of war...
...Reasurrance...
...Prior presidents would no doubt be shocked...
...At his nationally televised press conference, he hit all five: resolve, reassurance, compassion, tolerance, and what a different sort of war this is...
...Of course not...
...Now he's become an effective communicator, especially disciplined at using repetition to make his points...
...But the country may already be reconciled, thanks in large measure to Bush's unblinking focus on the threat we face...
...Bush himself is a different kind of war president...
...This shows "the compassion of the American people," he later told reporters...
...Bush's case for American compassion is, in part, a straw man argument, but it also explains a unique policy...
...This is another straw man...
...As we strike military targets, we'll also drop food, medicine, and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan," the president said on October 7 while announcing the start of air raids...
...He said it four times, in one form or another, at his prime-time press conference last week...
...The danger is here now, not only from a military enemy, but from an enemy of all law, all liberty, all morality, all religion," he said at a Pentagon ceremony on the one-month anniversary of the terrorist attacks...
...And the day before that, at a White House photo op with German chancellor Gerhard Schroder, he said, "If it takes one day, one month, one year, or one decade, we're patient enough...
...As for tolerance, Bush rarely passes up a chance to do a riff on it...
...I'm determined to stay the course," he said at the press conference...
...These are normal talking points for a wartime leader...
...Lack of compassion, however, is not one of the terrorists' criticisms of America...
...sure, he stresses familiar themes like the nation's resolve to achieve victory and the goverment's concern for the safety of the American people...
...Bush feels he must make them as comfortable as possible being on America's side...
...To understand how unusual this argument is, imagine President Roosevelt saying, during World War II, that we're against the government of Japan but not at war with the Japanese people...
...Perhaps, but military force is bound to hasten the day...
...The Bush war mantra has five parts, two conventional and three peculiar to Bush and the war against terrorism...
...It's important for the American people to know their government is on full alert," he said, "and that's what that warning showed...
...The bomb-and-feed policy also demonstrates, according to Bush, that while America is at war with the Taliban regime, it's "a friend to the Afghan people...
...Nearly every Bush talk has a half-dozen punchy sentences in which he vows to see the war to the very end...
...They stuck to the patriotic perennials, even when the united states was part of a wartime coalition (World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War...
...Bush used a hostile question from Terry Moran of ABC at the press conference to assert his administration is on top of things...
...But Bush has added some new elements...
...It was a remarkable performance with Bush in total control, showing once again that the war has brought out the best in him...
...Does anybody honestly think America is targeting either...
...He made the point several different ways at his press conference that America is not fighting a war against Islam or Muslims...
...He repeatedly says we're compassionate, sending food to the Afghans, and tolerant, going out of Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
Vol. 7 • October 2001 • No. 6
